Mafalda Santos Cellist

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Portuguese cellist Mafalda Santos fell in love with the cello at the age of 3. Too small for the instrument, she played the violin and finally switched at the age of 7. She brings to the United States her engaging personality and desire to share music and stories with audiences all over the world.

 

Awarded 1st prize from the Marília Rocha Competition at the age of 10, she has since then been the recipient of over 20 awards from prestigious national and international competitions in Portugal, Spain, London and Berlin. In 2018, Mafalda won the Yale Gordon Competition for Orchestral Bowed
Strings, becoming the first person to ever be awarded this prize as a first-year Undergraduate.

 

She performed in prestigious venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Berliner Philharmoniker, Centro Cultural de Belém and Casa da Música, in concert series such as Shriver Hall and “Thursdays at 7”, the last one with live broadcast by the Portuguese National Radio. She played with orchestras in both the United States and in Europe.

 

An avid chamber musician, Mafalda collaborates with Romain Garioud, Alexei Eremine, Tony Arnold and Seth Knopp. She is a current member of the Silk Ruby String Trio with Fangming Shen and Lan Zhang, which received Peabody’s “Honors Ensemble” title in 2018-2019.

 

Mafalda is the co-founder of the project “Storytelling, Storyplaying”, along with Portuguese writer Sofia Teixeira, which aims to combine Literature and Music.

 

Since 2017, Mafalda studies with Amit Peled at the Peabody Conservatory on a full scholarship. She performs on a 1790 William Forster cello donated to the Peabody Institute by Mrs. Janet S. Greive and with a bow made by Benoit Rolland in 2004.